Steering ball joint i think??

hi, i am gradually getting round to sorting all the little problems with my P38 2.5DT.
todays problem is the steering. i have had a problem with the steering since i bought it, but i only just had a chance to check it.
when driving the car seems to veer both left and right at random. it dont do it in a dangerous way so far. my mates p38 done it really badly before he sold it. this is ok tho.
just jacked both front wheels up and wobbled up-down, thats fine.
left to right theres a slight wobble.
from my experience in smaler cars its usually the ball joints worn, but this car has a different steering system, power steering seems to control pass side wheel with bar going to driver wheel,
so before i buy any parts can anyone confirm the ball joints as most likely cause????
i am actually going to completely renew all the steering rods and joints, because they all really rusty and look totally ****. hate having rust on my cars and besides the rods aint too expensive

but anyway back to the question. ball joints the cause????

Mike.

You only have four steering TRE joints, two on the drag link and two on the track rod. One on each of these items is fixed to the bar, one on each is replaceable. Sods law says the ones that go are the fixed ones 9 times out of 10. If you have slight play in a TRE i do not think that would cause the car to wander too much. More likely the steering box is not centralised. And the steering damper is not doing it's job.

wammers said:

You only have four steering TRE joints, two on the drag link and two on the track rod. One on each of these items is fixed to the bar, one on each is replaceable. Sods law says the ones that go are the fixed ones 9 times out of 10. If you have slight play in a TRE i do not think that would cause the car to wander too much. More likely the steering box is not centralised. And the steering damper is not doing it's job.

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ok thanks, well im gonna replace it all over next month, parts are alot cheaper than i thought i would be.

mikey!!!! said:

ok thanks, well im gonna replace it all over next month, parts are alot cheaper than i thought i would be.

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Does it veer based on whether to are accelerating or not. If the veering left to right appears to be related to what your right foot is doing, it is most likely bushes rather than ball joints.

p76rangie said:

Does it veer based on whether to are accelerating or not. If the veering left to right appears to be related to what your right foot is doing, it is most likely bushes rather than ball joints.

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no i could be doing 30 smoothly and all of a sudden it will veer and i will have to correct it, but come to think of it, the steering seems slack. not sharp at all. dont no if thats normal for RR's